Abū Ḥanīfah

Abū Ḥanīfah
Nuʿmān ibn Thābit ibn Zūṭā ibn Marzubān with Islamic calligraphy
Title	Imām e Azam
Born	September 5, 702 (80 Hijri) Kufa, Umayyad Caliphate
Died	June 14, 772(772-06-14) (aged 69) (150 Hijri) Baghdad, Abbasid Caliphate
Ethnicity	Persian
Era	Islamic golden age
Region	Kufa
Religion	Islam
Main interest(s)	Jurisprudence
Notable idea(s)	Istihsan
Notable work(s)	Kitabul-Athar Fiqh al-Akbar
Influenced by Hammad bin Abi Sulayman,Ata' ibn abi rabah, Zayd ibn Ali, Ja'far al-Sadiq, and other senior tabi'in
Influenced Malik ibn Anas, Muhammad ibd idris al shafi'i, Muhammad al-Shaybani, Abu Yusuf, al-Tahawi, Ahmad Sirhindi, Shah Waliullah, Ja’ far Ibn Awn, Ubaydullah Ibn Musa

Abū Ḥanīfa al-Nuʿmān b. Thābit b. Zūṭā al-Fārisī (Arabic: أبو حنيفة نعمان بن ثابت بن زوطا بن مرزبان‎‎, Persian: ابوحنیفه‎‎), known as Abū Ḥanīfa for short or reverently as Imam Abū Ḥanīfa by Sunni Muslims, was the founder of the Sunni Hanafi school of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). He is also considered a renowned Islamic scholar and personality by Zaydi Shia Muslims. He is often called "The Great Imam" (Arabic: ألإمام الأعظم‎, translit. al-imām al-aʿẓam‎).

Abū Ḥanīfah was born in the city of Kufa in Iraq, during the reign of the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan. His father, Thabit bin Zuta, a trader from Kabul, Afghanistan, was 40 years old at the time of Abū Ḥanīfah's birth.

His ancestry is generally accepted as being of Persian origin as suggested by the etymology of the names of his grandfather (Zuta) and great-grandfather (Mah). The historian Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi records a statement from Imām Abū Ḥanīfah's grandson, Ismail bin Hammad, who gave Abū Ḥanīfah's lineage as Thabit bin Numan bin Marzban and claiming to be of Persian origin. The discrepancy in the names, as given by Ismail of Abū Ḥanīfah's grandfather and great-grandfather, are thought to be due to Zuta's adoption of the Arabic name (Numan) upon his acceptance of Islam and that Mah and Marzban were titles or official designations in Persia, with the latter, meaning a margrave, referring to the noble ancestry of Abū Ḥanīfah's family as the Sasanian Marzbans (equivalent of margraves) of Kabul (Modern day Afghanistan). Those stories maintain for his ancestors having been slaves purchased by some Arab benefactor are, therefore, untenable and seemingly fabricated. There is a discussion on being of Turkic or Persian origin. But the widely accepted opinion, however, is that most probably he was of Persian ancestry from Kabul.